Personality as the Predictor of Treatment Experiences: A Combined Focus on Relaxation and Catharsis

Abstract

Examines the relationship between fifty-eight participants' pre-treatment personality scores and subsequent ratings of either relaxation or catharsis. Participants completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire prior to their treatment workshops and the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory as the measure of their treatment-experience within the workshops. Multivariate Multiple Regression Analyses show personality as a significant predictor of treatment-experience. Univariate analyses reveal different aspects of the treatment-experience are predicted by different functions of personality described as either dispositional-mood or style. As a mood-measure, high Negative Emotionality predicts high Internal Dialogue and low Rationality. Style variables of high Absorption, low Constraint, low Harmavoidance, and high Social Closeness predict the self-altering features of the treatment-experiences. The implication is that personality, through the vicissitudes of mood and the stability of style, provides the structure for our experiences.